


What's Your Name?

by PBS_is_killing_me



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Based on a soulmate prompt I saw on Tumblr, Constructive Criticism Welcome, I'm writing this in the middle of the night because I can't sleep, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-21 06:23:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12451435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PBS_is_killing_me/pseuds/PBS_is_killing_me
Summary: You are entertaining your teenage cousin for the week while his mother is busy working. You can't help but get the feeling he knows something about your soulmate that you don't know.





	1. What's So Funny?

**Author's Note:**

> I know soulmate AUs can be considered contrived and silly, but I'm a sucker for them anyways.

You had spent the whole day before cleaning and fussing over every little thing. Having family over didn’t generally make you nervous, it was just that this time it was family that you didn’t know very well. You wanted to make a good impression. Your aunt Allison and her teenage son Johnny would be staying with you for two weeks while she was in town on business. Allison was only your mother’s half-sister. You hadn’t seen her in years and even back then it would only be on holidays. You had met her son a few times when he was a little kid, but now he was fifteen and you knew nothing about him. Nevertheless, you were a mix of excitement and nerves.

After you washed your dishes from breakfast, you took one last look around the house to make sure you didn’t forget anything. It wasn’t that you were a slob, it was just that you had lived alone for a while now so you didn’t generally have to worry about the little things. Satisfied that you wouldn’t embarrass yourself with your living conditions, you got dressed and waited for them to arrive. 

A few hours later, Johnny texted you to let you know they were pulling in. You walked outside to greet them and watched them get out of their car. They were obviously tired and cranky from having driven halfway across the country, but they put on smiles for you as you went to give the both hugs. The space above your aunt’s head was empty, as it always was. She didn’t have a soulmate. However, you were surprised to see that Johnny did name a name above his head. 

Being without a soulmate was a genetic thing and your family was a prime example. Most of your mother’s relatives did not have soulmates. From the day they turned thirteen they would wait patiently, hoping that one day those magic letters would appear above their heads telling the world the name of the person they were destined to spend their lives with. By the time they turned eighteen they would give up hope. As a result, whenever someone on you mother’s side of the family was revealed to have a soulmate it was big news. Everyone would hear about it. The fact that you hadn’t heard the big news for Johnny yet must have meant that it just happened. 

You glanced at the name just long enough to take it in. Ian James Calvin. The name didn’t seem familiar to you so looked away from it back to Johnny’s face. It was rude to stare at someone’s soulmate’s name after all. 

That didn’t seem to be stopping Johnny though. He was staring right at the spot above your head. The look of utter confusion on his face lasted about five seconds before he dissolved into uncontrollable laughter. You exchanged a concerned look with Allison. 

“What on Earth is so funny?” She asked her son. After a few moments, Johnny managed to regain his composure. 

“Nothing, mom. N. . . Nothing,” he said in between spurts of unsuccessfully suppressed laughter. 

You decided to ignore this behavior since asking questions could get you dangerously close to a revelation you didn’t want. 

You led them inside, careful to change the subject to something completely unrelated to soulmates. The three of you talked for a while about the drive over and the last minute party that had been thrown for Johnny the day before they left to celebrate the arrival of his soulmate’s name. Johnny seemed a little embarrassed about that.

Allison and Johnny decided to take a nap after lunch, so you took the time to go for a walk. You tried not to think too much about Johnny’s reaction to seeing you. You knew it most likely meant that he recognized the name that floated above your head. You had started to suspect recently that your soulmate might be famous. Or at least slightly famous. Sometimes when you were in public people would stare at the space above your head. Occasionally people would start conversations with you out of the blue. They wouldn’t talk about it directly of course, but they would ask you weird questions. Strangers would ask you about What music you liked, if you had ever played a specific video game or heard of a specific band. And there had been one or two weird moments when someone would say something completely random to you and then look at you expectantly. Like the two of you had an inside joke or something. Except that you didn’t know what they were getting at and of course you couldn’t ask. If he really was famous, you didn’t want someone to accidentally give you too much information. 

It was so frustrating to you that other people seemed to know something that you didn’t. You couldn’t see the name above your own head. No one could. It didn’t appear in the mirror or in pictures or on film. If someone were to tell you what your soulmate’s name was, or even give you too much of a hint, the name would suddenly disappear. At the same time, somewhere else in the world, your name would also disappear from them. No one had ever been able to meet their soulmate after the name had disappeared. 

So even though Johnny probably knew, you couldn’t ask him. It was impossible to tell how much information was too much, so the safest route was not saying anything at all. And since you couldn’t say anything, it was best to just put it out of your mind. Instead you focused on planning the rest of your week. You had taken a few days off from work so that you could entertain Johnny while Allison was working. 

As you walked, you began googling fun places in Charlotte where you two could go together.


	2. What's bothering you?

Dan sat up suddenly, instantly forgetting the dream that woke him. It took him a few seconds to remember why he wasn’t sleeping in his own bed at home. He was on a bus. He was on tour. They were playing in Charlotte tonight. 

Looking around he could see that Arin was already awake. He was sitting at the table scrolling through his phone. He walked over to sit with him. 

“Hey, man. What are you doing awake so early?” Arin asked. Dan had been acting a little strange lately and Arin was starting to worry. It had started as soon as they left for the tour. Dan would always keep his energy up for the fans and for the shows, but there would be moments, on the bus or at a restaurant, when Dan thought no one was looking when he would let his guard down and Arin could see just how tired and distracted he was. 

“I don’t know, dude. I had a weird dream. I can’t remember what it was though.” Dan sat at the table running his hands through his hair and trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes. 

Arin figured he wouldn’t get a better opportunity to ask. “Are you okay?” Dan only looked confused. “You’ve been acting kind of distracted lately. Is there something on your mind?”

“No. It’s . . .” Dan stopped mid-sentence, seeing the concerned look on his best friend’s face. “Yeah. There is something bothering me.”

“I’m all ears.”

Dan rubbed his hands together. He’d been wanting to talk to someone about this for a while. There just never seemed to be a good time. “It’s just. . . When we are on tour or doing events and stuff and we’re meeting new people and interacting with fans. . . I always get nervous that someone is going to blurt something out.” 

Arin looked confused for a moment until Dan pointed to the space above his head. Oh, that. There was a name floating there, just like there had always been. The space above Arin’s own head had been empty since the day he met Suzy. It had been so long, he had forgotten the anxious feeling that went along with not knowing. He wasn’t sure how to respond. “We’ve been on tour before. Why is it worrying you now?” he asked. 

“It always worries me, it’s just . . .” Dan wasn’t really sure how to continue, in part because he didn’t even know why it was bothering him so much now. “Maybe it’s because I’m getting older. Almost all of my friends have found their soulmates already. I read somewhere that almost seventy percent of people have found their soulmates by the time they are my age.”

“Did you know that seventy-five percent of all statistics brought up in conversation are made up on the spot?” Arin said in a surprised sounding voice. 

Dan chuckled. “Come on, dude. I’m being serious.”

“I know. Look man, I don’t think you have much to worry about. Our fans are pretty chill for the most part. They know how serious this is.”

Dan sighed. “Yeah for the most part. Some of them can be a bit crazy though. Especially with the particular type of attention that I sometimes get.” Dan ran his hands through his hair. He was beginning to get frustrated. He didn’t normally have so much trouble putting his thoughts into words. “I just can’t help but worry that someone, either someone being careless or some jealous fan with a crush, will say something. Either to me or to her. I know that’s the kind of thing everyone worries about, but with how popular Grumps and NSP are getting it’s becoming more and more likely every day.”

Arin couldn’t even imagine how awful if would be to wake up one day and not have a soulmate anymore. He also couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have to tell Dan if the name above his head suddenly disappeared one day. He wished there was something he could do, but he knew it was useless. So, even though he knew it wasn’t much, he offered up the most comforting words he could. 

“Well, I can tell you that it’s still there. And as always, I’ll be on the lookout for someone with your name above them. In the meantime, why not distract ourselves with some sights before the show.” He pulled out his phone to google places to go in Charlotte. 

Dan didn’t look much more at ease, but he was glad for the distraction. They sat, going through a list of museums in Charlotte, looking for the most fun one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dialogue heavy chapters always take me a long time to write because I'm not very good at it. Any advice on the subject is appreciated. Also sorry it's so short.


	3. Will it be this way forever?

The next morning you found yourself in the car on the way to Charlotte. Johnny wanted to spend the day going around science and art museums. It was a 45-minute drive from your home to Charlotte. You decided to spend the time trying to get to know him a little bit better.

“So, what do you do for fun?” You asked. You were aware that this sounded like a lame question, but you didn’t really know what else to say. He brought up video games and this carried the conversation for about half the drive. Johnny kept breaking off the conversation to look at his phone. You had asked him to google cool places in Charlotte, but you suspected he was just checking Twitter. 

During a lull in the conversation you looked around for a new topic. Unfortunately, the thing that was at the forefront of your mind was somewhat of a touchy subject. It was generally considered impolite to talk about soulmates in any detail with someone who hadn’t found theirs yet. The possibility of giving away some important information, even accidentally, was too great. And anyways, it wasn’t like you were about to spill your guts to this fifteen-year-old about being lonely. Even if he didn’t know who your soulmate was, it would be weird. 

Well, maybe lonely isn’t the right word. You had a decent number of friends, a good job, and some hobbies. It wasn’t like your life was completely devoid of happiness without a soulmate in it. But you couldn’t deny that there was something missing. It was hard to take other romantic relationships seriously when you knew that there was someone out there who was better suited for you. As a result, the relationships you had been in were mostly short and you had known that they wouldn’t go anywhere. You wanted to know what it was like to be with someone the way you saw your friends and their soulmates. You wanted that, but you didn’t necessarily need it. You could live your life just like it was now and be fine, but you couldn’t help but want that extra something in your life. 

Your mind went back and forth on this for a little while before Johnny spoke up. As it turned out, he did want to talk about soulmates. 

“So, did they throw you a party when your name showed up?” He asked, sounding a little less embarrassed about it than he was the day before. 

“Yeah. And it was just as embarrassing and awkward as I’m betting yours was. You would think that they would realize at some point that throwing a party where you can’t talk about the reason for the party is a bad idea.” 

Johnny laughed. It was a weird family tradition that you had tried to talk your relatives out of many times. You had never met anyone else who’s family had thrown them a party. Usually, people just got a present or something. 

“So. . . Like. . .” Johnny started and then stopped several sentences before he managed to get the question out. Once he got going the words just kept tumbling out of him. “Is it always going to be this nerve wracking? Because, like, I have anxiety problems already and this is just making it worse. It’s like every time I turn a corner they could be there. Or someone who knows them could say something. And I don’t even know what gender my soulmate is, so it could be literally anyone. I’m so nervous all the time now, I feel like I’m going crazy.”

“You are not going to go crazy, I promise. I remember what that felt like. I was eighteen when mine showed up. I had almost given up hope that I even had a soulmate. Neither of my parents did, you know. But then when it did show up, I was ecstatic. For some reason I was convinced that I was going to meet him that very day. It didn’t happen of course, but for the first few weeks, I woke up every day absolutely sure it was going to happen that day and every day I went to bed disappointed. It didn’t take me long to grow out of that. The nerves took a bit longer to go away, but you shouldn’t worry. Most people are polite enough never to give any information away. Before long, you will realize that, while it is important, it’s not the most important thing in the world and you will be able to get on with your life. Your soulmate will be worth waiting for so just try to relax and let things happen the way they are going to happen.”

This seemed to calm him down a bit. You decided to take your own advice and just not worry about anything. 

Johnny took a few seconds to digest what you said and then looked down at his phone again. You didn’t want to make unnecessary jokes about teens and their phones, but this was getting ridiculous. 

“Why are you on Twitter every five seconds? Are you stalking someone?” You asked. You made a show of pretending to crane your neck over to try to see what he was looking at on his phone. You made sure not to actually look though. You didn’t want to invade the kid’s privacy. 

“What? No. No particular reason,” he replied, laughing and pulling his phone away from you with the most suspicious grin you had ever seen. “We should go to the natural science museum first. It looks like a pretty chill place.”

“What-“ you started to ask Johnny what the hell he was up to and why he was acting so weird but you stopped yourself. _Just go with the flow,_ you reminded yourself. So you just said okay and tried to remember the best place to park to walk to the museum.


	4. Where are they?

Johnny was giddy with excitement, his own reasons for being nervous forgotten. He knew this was a longshot, but if everything worked out the way he wanted it to, this would be one of the coolest days of his life. Not only would he be helping his cousin out, he might get to meet his favorite Youtubers. He just had to cross his fingers and hope that Arin not only saw his email, but believed it too. 

He had spent hours the day before trying to figure out what to do. They couldn’t just go to where the grumps might be and hope to run into them. He didn’t know what they typically did before a show and Charlotte was a big city. He would have to get their attention somehow. It had taken him a little while to figure out what email address people usually used to get into contact with Arin. But once he found it, he realized he had no idea what to say. 

He didn’t want to come across as some crazy person who was trying to get attention with some sort of cruel prank. If he sounded to desperate, he might scare them off and they might decide not to go out before the show at all and then his chances were ruined. He decided to make the subject line of the email “IMPORTANT! Not A Criticism of Your Gameplay! I Promise!” He figured that might get his attention. For the rest of the email, he figured calm honesty was the best way to go. 

“My name is Johnny. I’ve been a fan of Game Grumps for almost two years. Earlier today I met an older cousin of mine for the first time that I can remember. Her name is __ __ __ and Dan is her soulmate. I haven’t mentioned anything to her, of course, but I think she suspects that I know who her soulmate is. It just so happens that she lives near Charlotte, NC. We don’t have tickets to the show or anything, but we are going to spend the day in the city tomorrow going to different museums. We will be at the Museum of Natural History first, and then the aviation museum. I will be wearing a Starbomb shirt. Please try to find us. I know y’all probably get a lot of these emails and you have no way of knowing if I’m telling the truth. I completely understand if you don’t believe me. Just know, I look up to you and Dan and the entire Grumps crew and I really want to try to make something amazing happen tomorrow. I’ll be on the lookout for you.”

He added a brief description of what they looked like and then read it over a few times. 

It wasn’t much, but it was the best he could do. He took a deep breath and hit send. From that moment on, he had been restless with both doubt and excitement. Had the email sounded as sincere as he thought it had? Did he sound like a crazy fan? Did he sound believable? Did it even matter? He had no way of knowing if Arin would even see the email before the group left Charlotte and it was too late. It had been very difficult to go to sleep. 

He wished he could provide some sort of proof that he was telling the truth, but it was impossible. There were lots of ways He could have known Dan’s soulmate’s name. Since soulmate names didn’t show up on camera and he had never seen Game Grumps or NSP live, he actually hadn’t known, but there were literally thousands of people who did. That number not only included anyone who had ever met Dan face to face, but also people who had found out about it online. A soulmate’s name was considered private information, especially to anyone with any level of fame, so most people wouldn’t post it online. But there were also lots of people who didn’t respect Dan’s privacy. 

He knew there wasn’t much more he could do, but no amount to telling himself to just hope for the best was going to help him calm down. He was currently bouncing up and down in the passenger seat of his cousin’s car as she looked for a place to park. He had reluctantly put his phone away to keep her from asking any more questions. The whole ride here he had been checking his email every few minutes on the off-chance Arin had responded. In between checks of his email, he had been checking twitter and Instagram for clues as to where they might be. He knew there probably wouldn’t be any though.

“Did you down my entire container of sugar for breakfast or something?” his cousin asked as she pulled into a parking garage. 

“Huh?”

“Why the hell are you so twitchy?” She asked. 

“Oh. I don’t know. Excited for the museum. I guess.” Johnny knew he should try to act less suspicious. But thinking about how not to be suspicious just made him more nervous. He tried to keep his cool and strike up a conversation about something normal as they walked to the museum. 

“Have you ever been here before?” He asked, keeping his head on a swivel, looking for any sign Dan or Arin. 

“I’ve been here tons of times. Especially when I was a kid. I love it.” She went on to talk about some of the exhibits they were about to see, wondering what had changed since her last visit. 

Johnny was only half listening, trying to keep a vigilant lookout without creeping out random passersby. Then she said something that got his full attention. Surely, he must have misheard her. 

“Did you just say something about a giant sloth?” he asked. 

“Yes. Haven’t you been listening? This aria of the world used to be home to giant sloths that were like twenty feet tall. There’s a skeleton of one here. It’s been here since I was a kid. It’s super cool.”

They went on talking about different dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures until they arrived at the museum. Johnny was finding it hard to concentrate on so many things at once. There were a lot of cool things to look at and he was trying to pay attention to what his cousin was saying, but he was also trying to keep an eye out for Dan or Arin. As a result, he wasn’t really taking in much of the information that was being thrown at him. 

But that was okay. There would be plenty of opportunities for museum browsing another day. Right now he had to prioritize. On the plus side, his cousin was so preoccupied with all the cool stuff that she was no longer commenting on, or even noticing, his odd behavior. 

After they explored the first two floors of the museum, Johnny started to calm down a bit. He was starting to get discouraged. There had been no sign of a familiar face so far. They would be hard to miss if they were here. The museum wasn’t very crowded. 

Johnny followed his cousin as they exited a cool dimly lit hallway that housed different minerals and gemstones that were found in the aria. 

“Oh, just up this escalator is where the sloth is!” she said excitedly. 

She hurried onto the escalator and Johnny followed. Sighing, he turned around for one last look at the underground animals exhibit when he thought he saw a familiar head of brown hair. 

He went back down a few steps to see better and caught a glimpse of that unmistakable blonde streak. 

YES! That was definitely Arin. 

Johnny almost exploded with excitement. Now he just had to get his attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I set the story in Charlotte because that's where they actually went on the Rock Hard Tour earlier this year but the science museum that they go to in the story (the one with the crystal hallway thing and the giant sloth skeleton) is actually in Raleigh. Halfway through writing this I realized that I have never actually been anywhere cool in Charlotte except for the mall. Oops. Sorry for the inaccuracy.


	5. Who are you?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter switches back and forth between reader's perspective and Arin's. I hope that's not confusing.

Arin walked out of the mineral exhibit and waited moment for his eyes to adjust. The exhibit was a long, dim hallway with several cases holding various minerals and gems. The cases were all backlit, so everything was glowing. It was very cool. Any other day, Arin may have enjoyed it a lot more, but today he was distracted.   
Shortly after his conversation with Dan this morning, he had decided to scroll through some emails. He had clicked on one with an interesting subject line and been shocked at the message it contained. 

A fan claimed to be related to Dan’s soulmate. And what’s more, if this person was telling the truth, they would be somewhere nearby. 

Arin had thought for a while on what to do about this. The grump crew had received emails and letters like this before. People would claim that their best friend or sister or someone had Dan’s name above their head. They never put much stock into any of these though. They always sounded crazy and ridiculous. Just someone trying to get close to them or playing a mean joke. 

This one had been different. This one wasn’t urgent. This fan hadn’t demanded to meet them somewhere. He hadn’t tried to provide some convoluted proof or anything. He had just told Arin where he would be and asked him to keep an eye out. 

Arin wasn’t sure that listening to this person was the best idea. There was always a chance that they was actually super crazy or dangerous. But there was also a chance that they were telling the truth. Should they risk going? He couldn’t ask Dan what he wanted to do about it without risking giving away too much information.   
Arin had thought about the conversation he had just had with Dan. It hurt him to see his best friend so upset and worried. If there was a chance that all of that might end today, then they had to go. If they started to get a weird vibe, then they would leave. 

So they had gone to the same museum that was mentioned in the email. The mention of rare dinosaur skeletons and cool prehistoric animals had been enough to get Dan on board. So far, nothing strange had happened. No one had approached them or done anything weird, so Arin was starting to relax a bit on that front. But with the lack of any crazies showing up, the other possibility was becoming more and more likely. The possibility that this fan was telling the truth. That today would be the day Dan would meet his soulmate. 

Arin was trying not to get his hopes up. He didn’t want to be disappointed if nothing happened, but he was finding himself, almost involuntarily, looking around harder and harder for a teenager in a Starbomb shirt that matched the description in the email or a woman with Dan’s name above her head. 

As his eyes adjusted to the natural lighting that filled the museum, he looked around. There was an escalator up to the next floor and a hallway that led to an underground animals exhibit. Arin was about to head down the hallway when he heard a small noise behind him. 

“Pssst.”

He heard it again. He turned around and took a few steps back towards the direction of the escalator he had walked past a second ago. 

“Pssssssst!”

The noise was more urgent this time. He looked up and immediately found its source. There was a teenage boy walking down the escalator. Since the escalator was going up, to Arin it looked like he was stationary. He was waving his arms around, trying to get Arin’s attention.   
That was when Arin noticed several things at once. 

First, that the kid was wearing a Starbomb shirt. Second, that the kid looked a lot like what the fan who had sent the email described himself as. Third that he wasn’t just waving his arms to get Arin’s attention. He was gesturing up and to the left trying to direct Arin’s attention to the top of the escalator. And finally, when Arin looked where the kid was pointing, he noticed that there was a woman standing at the top of the escalator about to turn down the hallway. This woman had a name floating above her head. And that name was Leigh Daniel Avidan. 

Arin was in shock. It was finally happening. He looked back down at the kid who he now knew was Johnny, the fan who had sent the email. He was grinning ear to ear. 

“Is Dan here?” he asked in a whisper that was just loud enough for Arin to hear. The kid was still walking down the up escalator to keep himself at the same height.   
Arin nodded. 

“Johnny?” Arin hear a woman’s voice from the top of the escalator. 

“We’ll be waiting by the giant sloth. It’s just upstairs,” Johnny hissed out in a whisper that was so fast it was almost all one word. 

Arin stood there, stunned and speechless, for a moment after the kid ran back up the escalator to his cousin. _Did he say giant sloth?_

 

You got to the top of the escalator and turned around, expecting to see Johnny a few steps behind you. Instead he was still in the middle of the escalator, waving his arms around like a lunatic and having an urgent, whispered conversation with a man standing at the bottom of the escalator. 

“Johnny? What the Hell? Who are you talking to?” You took a step forward to get a better look at the guy. It was no one you knew. You had thought that Johnny didn’t know anyone in North Carolina. 

Johnny turned around when you spoke to him. “Oh, I don’t know. Some crazy person.” He said loudly. “Let’s go look at that sloth.”

Before you could respond, he ran up the rest of the escalator and grabbed you by the hand, eagerly dragging you towards the giant sloth skeleton. 

 

Arin hurried back to the exit of the mineral exhibit where Dan had been lingering behind to look at some opals. 

“Dude, someone must have been JO-ing super hard in here,” Dan said with a laugh, gesturing to the glowing rocks and gems lining the walls. Arin was glad to see Dan feeling more relaxed than he was this morning and he couldn’t wait to see Dan’s reaction to what was waiting for him upstairs. The kid had told him that they would be waiting by the giant sloth skeleton which was on the next floor. 

“Yeah, must have been a great sesh, heh heh,” Arin replied in his ridiculous dudebro voice. “Dude, come check out this sloth. It’s huge.” 

Dan was in no hurry, wanting to stop and look at every little thing. Arin was about ready to tear his hair out with impatience, wanting to physically drag Dan up the escalator. 

“Don’t you want to look at the underground animals thing. It might be pretty cool.”

“No!” Arin almost shouted. 

Dan looked at him, confused by Arin’s sense of urgency. “What’s gotten into you, man. Why are you so jazzed about the sloth?”

“Dan,” said Arin, his voice suddenly serious, “You are going to go up this escalator right now and look at this goddamn sloth.”

“Alright, alright. Jesus, Arin. You make me tingly when you get all bossy like that.” Arin could see that Dan was confused but willing to go along with it. Dan knew him well and was probably expecting some sort of punchline. It didn’t matter as long as Dan got upstairs. 

 

You had seen the sloth several times before in your life, but you were still excited to see it again. Prehistoric animals were just so cool. The skeleton towered over you. It was posed to look like it was reaching for a tree branch. You tried to imagine this enormous creature walking around. 

“You’re such a nerd,” said Johnny, who still wasn’t paying much attention to the museum. He was too busy watching the entrance to the room. You were the only two people here. 

“Who are you calling a nerd, nerd? And you were the one who wanted to come here. You haven’t been paying any attention at all this whole time.” Your patience for this odd behavior was wearing off. You wanted to know what on Earth was going on and why Johnny was acting so strangely. And who on Earth Had Johnny been talking to a minute ago?

“All right. What’s-“ Just as you started to ask the question, Johnny let out an excited gasp. You followed his eyes to the entrance to this room. Stepping off the escalator were two men, close to you in age. They were both tall and handsome. The skinnier of the two was looking at the sloth while the other was scanning the room excitedly, in the same way that Johnny had been doing all day. 

You glanced at the space above their heads. One was empty, indicating that the excited looking one had either already found his soulmate or never had one to begin with. The other. . . 

Your heart skipped a beat. The other man had your name, first, middle, and last, floating in the air above his head. You were in shock. This was what all the weird behavior had been about. Did Johnny know them? Did he arrange for this to happen? You were speechless. Just standing there staring at this man, your soulmate. 

 

Arin spotted them almost right away. They were standing right in the middle of the room. He made eye contact with Johnny just as his cousin turned to ask him a question. She looked a little annoyed. Her question was cut off as she looked over to where he and Dan were standing. 

It’s happening! It’s Happening! Ain looked at Dan. He was too busy looking at the sloth to have noticed the other two people in the room. She had sure noticed though. She was staring at Dan with her mouth open in shock. 

Dan still hadn’t noticed though. Arin rolled his eyes and looked at Johnny who was bouncing up and down with excitement. “Hey, kid. Cool shirt,” he said loudly enough to draw Dan’s attention away from the sloth. 

“Thanks!” Johnny replied with a thumbs up. 

Only then did Dan bother to look around the room. He waved at Johnny, taking a few steps closer to say something to him. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the woman standing next to him. 

Arin watched it all happen form a distance. He saw Dan and this woman staring at each other. As soon as they each had looked at their names floating above the other’s head, the names disappeared and that was that. They were soulmates. 

They continued to stand there, mouths agape, for several seconds. It was Dan who broke the silence. 

“Hi,” was all he could manage to say. 

“Hello,” she said back. 

Then, very suddenly, the two launched at each other, wrapping themselves into a desperate embrace. They just stood there hugging. Arin thought one of them might be crying but he couldn’t tell which one. He and Johnny looked at each other and, without saying anything, they decided to head back downstairs and leave the two of them alone. 

There would be time for explanations and figuring out what to do later. For now, they could just have their moment.


End file.
